Session of the Week: Combination Play & Attacking in Transition
This week’s session of the week was centered on technical passing and combination play culminating in a transfer rondo exercise to bring it all together.
The structure for this session is as follows:
Warmup (Ages 12 and under warmup should just be… playing. Let the kids play to small sided goals, have fun, get into it)
Technical: Technical Passing Exercise
Tactical: 6 x 3 Transfer Rondo (adapt the numbers to your needs)
Evolution: 6 v 6 + 6 to Goal
Small Sided Game: Consider adding a pass restriction before going to goal to reinforce the session’s focus areas.
Technical Passing
Setup: Organize 6-8 5 x 5 Boxes with a 2-3 yard gap in between each. Groups of three, each player stands on a corner of a box (there should be one empty corner per box,
Instruction:
Pass & Run to the empty cone opposite the direction of your pass. (Pass to the left = run to the right).
When Coach says “Go” or blows their whistle, each box passes to the next box over (clockwise)
After each transition, switch the direction of the passing
Coaching Points:
Emphasize Communication
Body Shape: Knees bent, body over the Ball, opening their bodies (drop-step) to enable them to play straight ahead within 2 touches
First Touch: First touches MUST setup the second touch
Hips to Target: these spaces are tight and the squares are close to each other, requiring accuracy
Speed of Play: the pace should be quick. Developing future elite players are communicating actively, on their toes, scanning before the ball is received, and focused
Down & play: as soon as the transition period is over, get the ball back down and moving quickly. There should be no delay between the transition to moving the ball rapidly again.
Evolution:
Switch the direction of the transition play between boxes
Shift from passing & running to the opposite direction to wall passes at each corner
Switch from passing to another box to dribbling to another box
Tactical - 6 v 3 Transfer Rondo
Setup: 2 x 25yd Boxes with a 10yd gap in between
3 teams of six
One team in each box
One team in the middle (between the boxes)
All soccer balls in the middle
Instruction:
Coach plays a ball into one of the boxes and the team in the middle is to send 3 defenders into the box to defend
Team in possession must complete ten passes before they can switch the point of attack to the other box
Once 10 passes (adjust the number of passes based on age/ability) are completed along with a switch, this equals a goal
If the ball is turned over, the team that was in possession is now defending and coach is immediately playing a ball into the other box to give the other team the chance to get going
Please see the video below for a high level example
Coaching Points
Spacing & scanning
Supporting each other with movement
Playing into/out of tight spaces
Playing quickly
Playing away from pressure
Forcing splits through mixtures of passing length
Evolution: 6 v 6 + 6
Remove the channel from the rondo squares
Add a goal
Full sized if you have a GK
or two small/pug goals approximately 20yd away from the larger playing space
Put all three teams in the space together, two teams in possession
The team that gives the ball away is now defending
After 10 passes, the team(s) in possession (it’s always 12 v 6 in this exercise) can play a through ball into the space between the goal(s) and the space of play to one player and the defending team can send one defender creating a 1v1 to goal.
Small Sided Game
I try to finish every session with a game, and it’s often just that. Give them 20-30 minutes to just play the game with no restrictions.
With that said, some restrictions or focuses you can consider layering into this session may be:
Pass restrictions before going to goal
A player or two who’s always with the team in possession to force overloading opportunities
Adding wide channels they can play into after 5-10 passes that aren’t defendable to maximize scoring opportunities
Have a great week of training!